Madsaki: Mad for Warhol, Cinema and Cartoon

Description

With new paintings and an installation, the exhibition features popular Warholian skulls, flowers, pistols, and dollar signs motifs. As a special homage to the city, Madsaki is exhibiting a series of paintings of celebrated scenes from Hong Kong cinema, with well-known titles including In the Mood for Love, Infernal Affairs, Chungking Express, Kung Fu Hustle, and more.

A graduate of New York City’s Parsons School of Design (BFA, 1996), Madsaki was born in Osaka, Japan, and raised in New Jersey, USA – experiences between two cultures that formed his aesthetics and personality. While much of his work centres on his interest in art history and critiquing mass culture with references to slang, movies and manga characters, the artist has recently been exploring more personal, intimate topics. To express this visually, he developed a signature style using spray paint as a fine art medium, stemming from the fact that he has never participated in illegal graffiti on the streets. The artist is particularly known for his Wannabe series, which at first glance humorously targets old masters, yet their deeper meaning is a reoccurring theme that can be found throughout Madsaki’s artistic practice – an attempt to use laughter and humour as both distraction and therapy for his internal turmoil.

Image courtesy MADSAKI/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd.